Door brace



Feb.. 5, 1957 H. c. RHODES 2,779,981() DOOR BRACE Filed Dec. 2l, 1954 FIG.

,6 JNVENTOR.

-/G 2 HERBERT c Hoor-:s

ATTORNEY United States Patent DUR BlRACE Herbert C. Rhodes, Portland, Oreg.

Application December 21, 1954, Serial No. 476,682

2 Claims. {CL 20--38) This invention relates to doors, particularly doors of dished or pan-like shape, made of sheet metal or other suitable material, and which doors, due to the flexibility of the material in the particular thickness used for the door construction, will permit a corner of the door rim to be thrust slightly out of the vertical plane of the remainder of the door rim.

More specifically, this invention relates to doors of refrigerators which close against the front face of the refrigerator and which carry a sealing gasket on their rim to form the desired air seal with the front wall face of the refrigerator when closed.

Such doors are customarily secured in closed position by latching means placed substantially in the center of one lateral edge, and suitable hinge mounting for the door is located along the opposite lateral edge. lf the face of the refrigerator against which the door closes always remained in a single true plane, and if the door were suiliciently rigid and perfect so that its rim would similarly always remain in a single true plane, there would be no serious problem of maintaining the desired tight seal when the door is closed vand latched. However, either due to faulty construction or, more likely, due to settling of the door or other support on which the refrigerator is mounted, the face of the refrigerator may not always be in a single true plane. Furthermore, even though all portions of the face of the refrigerator remain in perfect alignment, or in a true plane, the door may, for one reason or another, have become sufficiently sprung so that when the door is closed one corner of the door will fail to press tightly against the face of the refrigerator and thus cause failure of the desired air seal. An air leak into the refrigerator when the door is closed not only results in reduced efficiency of the refrigerator, but is a factor in increasing the frequency with which the defrosting of the refrigerator becomes necessary.

An object of the present invention is to provide a flexible door, adapted particularly for refrigerators, which will always fit tightly when closed, and thus provide a leakproof closure for the refrigerator, even though the wall face against which the door closes may not be true, or even though part of the rim of the door itself ordinarily may not be true.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved fiexible door, having latching or locking means medially located in one edge and hinge means distributed along the opposite edge, which will be suilciently self-adjusting to insure a tight closure over every portion of the door rim when the door is fastened in closed position.

A further and specific object of the invention is to provide self-adjusting means on an ordinary pan-shaped refrigerator door which will permit any necessary and desired self-adjustment of the corner portions of the door in a direction perpendicular to the normal plane of the door, and which self-adjusting means will be simple, practical and relatively inexpensive.

These objects and incidental advantages I am able to` attain by constructing my improved door as hereinafter briefly described with reference to the accompanying drawings:

In the drawings:

Figure l is an elevation of a refrigerator door made in accordance with my invention, the door being shown by itself and the elevation being of the inside face of the door with the inner facing sheet removed for the sake of clarity;

Figure 2 is `a horizontal section on line 2 2 of Figure l, but drawn to a larger scale and showing also the inside facing sheet and sealing gasket;`and

Figure 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Figure l.

The refrigerator door illustrated in the drawings comprises an outer shell, preferably of customary sheet metal, although plastic conceivably could also be used for the shell. In the drawings the shell is designated in general by the reference character 10. This shell is of rectangular shape and is also in the customary so-called dished or pan formation, the four sides at the edges thus being formed into convex surfaces 11 curving towards the rear of the inside of the composite door. The inside edge or periphery of the shell is formed into an inwardlyextending ange 12. When the door shell is originally formed all portions `of this flange 12 will, as s common practice, ordinarily by positioned in a common plane which is to be regarded as the vertical plane of the door whenthe door is mounted on its hinges 13.

When the door is completed an inside facing sheet 20 (Figure 2) is secured to the fiangelZ and the customary gasket 22, of rubber or otherresilient material, is mounted on the inside face of the door adjacent the rim so as to Contact the outside face of the refrigerator around the v refrigerator opening when the door is closed.

A structural reinforcement is provided for the shell 10 in my improved door, which reinforcement extends horizontally or transversely across thte center of the door shell. Preferably this structural reinforcement is in the form of a channel-shaped bridge member, as indicated by the member 14 in the drawings, the channel formation providing rigidity and strength without excessive weight. The end portions 15 (Figure 2) of this structural bridge reinforcement member 14 are firmly secured, by any suitable means such as welding, to the opposite sides respectively of the door shell 10 and to the flange 12. This reinforcement member 14, unlike the door shell itself, is very rigid and thus those portions of the shell which are joined to the ends of this reinforcement member are held against iexing. The other portions of the door shell, however, are permitted to retain a certain amount of flexibility, as will later be apparent.

The main portion of the structural reinforcement member 14, as shown in Figure 2, is spaced outwardly, that is to say, is positioned towards the outer face of the door shell from the plane of the flange 12. Preferably, though not necessarily, the structural member 14 does not actually contact the door shell 10 along this center main portion. By having the door shell spaced outwardly beyond this center portion of the structural reinforcement member, the door is able to have a more pleasing contour, the center portion of the shell remains flexible in a direction perpendicular to the door plane, and the composite door has a greater thickness without requiring a structural reinforcement member of extra size. By having the composite door quite thick also adequate space is provided for insulating material in the door shell. A portion of such insulation is indicated at 16 in Figure 2.

Each corner portion of the door shell 1.0 is lseparately and independently connected with the center portion of the structural reinforcement member 14 through the intermediary of what I term a tensioning tie assembly. An anchoring member or strip 17 is rigidly secured on the structural reinforcement member 1li at its central portion. As shown in Figure 3, this anchoring strip consists of a short length of channel iron in the proper width to tit on the reinforcement member 14 andthe anchoring strip is rigidly secured to the member 14 either by welding or by other suitable means. The top face of this anchoring strip, as viewed in Figure 2, which will constitute its rear face when the door is mounted on its hinges, is positioned a slight distance from the plane of the flange 12 in a direction towards the front face of the door, as apparent from Figures 2 and 3.l y

The tensioning tie assembly, which is connected to each corner portion of the shell and flange 12, consists of a metal strap 18 and an expansion spring 19. In the preferred arrangement of thesetie assemblies, which I have illustrated, one end of the metal strap 1e is connected directly to the corner portion of the liange 12 and the coil spring 19 is interposed between the other end of the strap and the corresponding corner of the anchoring strip 1'7. The four tie assemblies are identical and in each assembly the spring 19 is under tension so that a tensioning pull towards the center is exerted on each corner portion of the door shell. This tensioning pull will be exerted equally on all four corners under normal conditions and will exert a tendency to move the corners slightly inwardly from the vertical plane of the door or tange 12;.

It will be noted from Figures 2 and 3 that the tensioning tie assemblies slope slightly outwardly (thus in the direction towards the outer,face of the door), from the plane Aof the flange 12. This not only allows the coil springs 19 to be spaced sufficiently from the inside facing sheet 20, with which the finished door is covered, so as not to contact such facing sheet 20, but it also enables the pull of the tensioning tie assembly to take place in a direction which is slightly outwardly oblique with respect to the plane of the ange 12. This causes` the tensioning pull of the tie assembly to be exerted in a slightly different manner and direction than would be the case if the pull were conned entirely to the plane of the flange 12 and has more tendency to produce a slight capping of the door shell.

The door locking or latching means, or that portion of such means which is carried on the door which will be located on the opposite lateral edge of the door from that on which the hinges 13 are located, will be substantially in the center of the door edge, as is customary, and with my invention such locking or latching means, indicated diagrammatically at 21 in Figures land 2, is preferably secured to the corresponding end of the structural reinforcement member 14. This insures that the structural reinforcement member togethed with that portion of the door which is secured to the reinforcement member will always be in proper relationship with the face of the refrigerator, against which the door closes, when the door is in closed position, regardless of any untrueness in the face of the refrigerator or in the door itself.

When, for any of the reasons indicated at the beginning at this speciiication, it is necessary for some slight adjustment to take place in order that all four corner portions of the door, particularly the corner portions above and below the door lock, will close tightly against the face of the refrigerator around the refrigerator opening when the door is closed, the corner portions of the door will have sufficient resiliency to be able to conform to such requirement even though this necessitates slight flexing from the normal relative position with respect to the rest of the door. Also in the event a corner portion of the door should strike a small interposed obstruction upon the closing of the door the resiliency of the tensioning tie assembly will enable the door portion to yield slightly without any permanent effect on the door.

l claim:

l. ln a refrigerator door assembly of the character described, having an outer rectangular llexible shell of pan-like shape terminating along all four sides in an inwardly extending flange adapted normally to lie in a vertical plane coinciding with the plane of the front wall of the refrigerator when said door is closed, a rigid bridge extending horizontally substantially centrally across the inside of said flexible shell, the ends of said bridge rigidly secured to the opposite side edges of said shell respectively, the major portion of said bridge spaced in an outward direction from said flange plane, and a tensioning tie assembly extending from each corner of said shell to the central portion of said bridge, said assemblies secured at one end to said flange at the corners of said shell respectively and separatelyconnected at their other ends with the central portion of said bridge, each of said assemblies including a tie member and an expansion spring under tension, whereby said assemblies Will exert a tendency to pull the respective corners of said shell independently slightly inwardly and thereby cause the corners of said refrigerator door automatically to bear firmly against the front wall of the refrigerator when said door is brought into closed position against the vertical front wall of the refrigerator.

2. in a refrigerator door 'assembly of the character described, having an outer rectangular flexible shell of panlike shape terminating along all four sides in an inwardly extending flange adapted normally to lie in a vertical plane coinciding with the plane of the front wall of the refrigerator when said door is closed, a rigid bridge extending horizontally substantially centrally across the inside of said flexible shell, the ends of said bridge rigidly secured to the opposite side edges of said shell respectively, the major portion of said bridge spaced in an outward direction from said ange plane, and a tensioning tie assembly extending from each corner of said shell to the central portion of said bridge, each assembly consisting of a tie member having one end attached to said flange at a corner of said shell and an expansion spring under tension attached to the other end of said tie member and connected with said bridge, whereby said assemblies will exert a tendency to pull the respective corners of lsaid shell independently slightly inwardly and thereby if:

cause the corners of said refrigerator door automatically to bear rmly against the front wall of the refrigerator'y References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Harbison Apr. l, 1952 Semple Oct. 7, 1952 

